


Sense (For the Senseless)

by mveloc



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4053622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mveloc/pseuds/mveloc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><strong>Post-3x07.</strong> Cosima refuses to seek medical help, but Shay is out of her league with her illness. Enter Delphine. A confrontation ensues, an understanding is reached.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sense (For the Senseless)

She presses the damp washcloth to Cosima’s pale forehead, frowning as the brunette whimpers, her lower lip trembling. The bleeding stopped hours ago, but she lay in a pool of sweat, a pile of frail and rattling bones. She had been alarmed at the sight of blood, but she hadn’t expected the vivacious young woman to fade quite so quickly.

“Cosima? Can you hear me?”

The clone mumbles unintelligibly, acknowledging the sound of her lover’s voice. She presses a kiss to Cosima’s temple and reaches over to the nightstand, grabbing the glass of juice she prepared.

“Here. Try to drink this, okay?” she coos.

She brings the glass to Cosima’s lips, but the dreadlocked woman is unable to bring herself to drink it. She turns her head away, folding in on herself. The blonde rubs soothing circles along her back, her own eyes filling with tears. Like anyone, her first instinct had been to call an ambulance, but Cosima had stopped her.

“No hospitals,” she had begged. “No doctors.”

She had reluctantly agreed, instead opting for every natural treatment she could think of, only Cosima wasn’t responding to any of it. She inhales a shaky breath, try to still the panic in her heart. The sound of light knocking pierces the air and momentarily distracts her from her panic, so she gathers her emotions and trudges over to the door.

Whoever it is, she doesn’t have time for this.

She opens the door and a part of her is tempted to laugh at the bizarre situation she’s found herself in, but Delphine’s expression is full of business and Cosima is wasting away in her bed just a few feet from them, so there’s no room for laughter.

“Cosima told you not to come back here,” she frowns, her eyes raking over the taller woman.

She’s statuesque, her hair perfectly straight and in place, as well as her outfit. She radiates a confidence that’s very different from Cosima’s or her own. Even though it doesn’t speak to her own tastes, there’s a grace and undeniable beauty to the European, one that she might even find intimidating if she wan’t already filled to the brim with worry.

“Believe me, I don’t want to be here,” Delphine retorts, her voice laced with the hint of her own laughter, acknowledging the strangeness of it all. “Cosima won’t answer my calls and she’s not showing up to work. Since she insists on ignoring me, this is how it has to be.”

She bites her tongue.

Cosima is playful and flirty and wide, lingering Cheshire cat smiles in the darkness of Wonderland. The woman before her is anything but; she’s business, pure and simple, from her impeccable, tailored power suit to her stern expression. She absently wonders how the two of them ever found their way into each others hearts, but as Delphine tries to gaze by her into the apartment, she closes the narrow opening of the door a little more and blocks her path.

“Where is she?” Delphine asks.

“She can’t talk right now,” Shay retorts.

Delphine narrows her eyes, silently weighing her options.

“Cosima?” she calls out, waiting for a reply.

Shay sighs, running a hand through her hair.

“You should just go,” she tries.

“Cosima?” Delphine calls again.

Cosima doesn’t respond. Shay isn’t even sure if she can, but as she opens her mouth to tell Delphine to leave one last time, the taller woman is already pushing by her. She stumbles back and a flash of anger surges through her, but when Delphine halts in the middle of her apartment with an expression of pure horror, her anger stills.

“Oh God.”

She rushes over to Cosima’s bedside and the clone wearily opens her eyes, taking in the sudden commotion in the room. She moves her lips, as if to speak Delphine’s name, but more smothered syllables come out instead.

“I have it under control,” Shay tells her, closing the door and approaching them.

Delphine whips her head around, directing her attention back to Shay momentarily.

“ _This_  is what you call control?” she snaps.

She cups Cosima’s face in her hands, noting her paleness, the clamminess of her skin. She brings two fingers to Cosima’s neck, checking her pulse.

“She’s burning up. Her pulse is weak,” she mumbles, surveying the damage. “She needs a hospital. Now.”

“She doesn’t want to go to the hospital,” Shay replies, shaking her head. “She wants to stay here.”

_“I don’t care what she wants!”_

Delphine’s voice is a thunder that the young healer isn’t used to hearing in the world of clear, blue skies that she’s carefully constructed for herself. She jumps back, wide-eyed and startled. Delphine quickly approaches her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her over into the tiny kitchen, out of Cosima’s earshot.

“She’s acting like a child and you’re allowing her to!” Delphine whispers harshly.

“I’m not  _allowing_ her to do anything!” Shay bites back. “Cosima’s a big girl. She can make her own choices.”

Delphine is laughing now, but it’s not the kind of laughter she’s familiar with, not the tiny giggles she draws out of Cosima when she gently kisses her stomach or the throaty chuckle she finds slipping from her own lips every time Cosima makes a clever joke. It’s an incredulous laughter, rooted in horror and disbelief. Delphine is already flying back to Cosima’s side, stroking the side of her face.

“If you care about her at all, you’ll help me bring her down to my car,” she tells her.

Shay folds her arms over her chest, frowning.

“I can take care of her,” she insists.

“So, you’re a doctor?” Delphine presses.

“No–”

“Well,  _I am.”_

She’s standing tall now, her hands balled into fists at her sides. She’s much taller than Shay, this becomes even more apparent when she stalks back over and glowers down at the bubbly young blonde.

 _“_ I’m  _her_ doctor and I’m telling you how this is going to be,” Delphine barks.

“This isn’t about you!” Shay fires back.

“No, it’s not! It’s about  _her_!”

They both look over to the whimpering brunette, curled and quaking in Shay’s bed. What was once a sacred place, a holy palace of joy and play, is now tarnished forever with the vision of Cosima fading fast. The healer falters momentarily, falters at the sight of her exuberant new love in clear distress. She knows Cosima’s wishes, she respects them, but it’s hard to honor them when she’s clearly in pain.

“Cosima doesn’t want to see a doctor,” she mumbles, her voice wavering.

She says it more for her own ears then for Delphine’s, reminding herself to do right by her girlfriend, to respect her will. Delphine watches her closely, detecting Shay’s doubt. Instead of being sympathetic, she presses onward, seeing an opening for attack.

“Cosima’s dying,” she says plainly. “Hasn’t she told you?”

She blinks, trying to mask her surprise.

“She… she told me about her health condition,” she stutters.

“Oh, no. It’s not a “health condition.” It’s a  _disease_. A t _erminal disease_ ,” Delphine retorts. “Or did she not tell you that part? Were you too busy playing pretend in your love nest?”

The revelation hits her like a bullet, sharp and pointed. Cosima had said she was sick, but she never mentioned she was terminal, only that it was “serious.” And then she had smiled and shrugged it off. The blonde could sense that there was a vulnerability, a quiet fear lurking beneath that smile, but that rush of redness in the water had forced her to forget about it momentarily and spring into action.

“It seems I’m not the only one she’s been withholding information from.”

Shay grows quiet, watching as Delphine pulls the covers from Cosima. She turns the smaller woman onto her back, pressing her ear to Cosima’s chest to assess her breathing.

“This disease spreads quickly.  _This,_ ” she says, gesturing to Cosima. “Happened in just a couple of months, and it’s killed plenty of others.”

She brings her hand to Cosima’s abdomen, pressing down. Cosima cries out as firm fingers prod her tenderness and Delphine immediately ceases the action, bringing the same hand to cup the side of Cosima’s face, stroking her gently.

“Did she tell you how she nearly died, just days before she met you?” Delphine tries.

Shay stands back and watches, the horror truly settling in. She realizes just how out of her league she is, how small she feels with Delphine glaring at her. She’s powerless to help Cosima, at least in this regard.

“This isn’t going to go away. You can’t give her juice and hope for the best,” Delphine chastises. “This thing is  _eating her_ from the inside. We need to be diligent.”

“She… she never…  _I didn’t know_ ,” Shay stutters, her eyes filling up with tears.

Delphine’s expression seems to soften then, sympathy reclaiming her features. She wants to hate this woman, this pretty little blonde who has come in so quickly and claimed her place as Cosima’s lover, but as Shay rushes over and helps maneuver Cosima so that Delphine can piggy back her, she swallow the pettiness.

“I don’t know what she’s told you about me,” Delphine whispers, lifting Cosima on her back. “ButI  _do_ care. I  _do_ want her to be happy, but this is very serious.”

She slowly makes her way to the door, Shay following closely behind. She keeps a hand pressed to Cosima’s back, holding the smaller girl to Delphine’s body, prepared to catch her if she falls while Delphine shoulders the petite, brittle load.

“Cosima likes to laugh and play her games, but… this is  _her life_. Do you understand?”

Shay nods, running down the hall ahead of them for a second to press the button and open the elevator doors. Delphine is as sturdy as ever as she enters and Shay presses the button for the main floor.

“Why did you break up with her?” Shay finally asks.

Delphine glances over to her, a weary expression upon her face, as if the question is too painful to answer.

“You love her, so why did you break up with her?” Shay tries again.

Delphine draws her lower lip between her teeth, a brief moment of vulnerability. The air in the elevator is thick despite the fact that one of the three is barely breathing. Cosima is delirious, barely conscious. She absently nuzzles her face to the nape of Delphine’s neck and the French woman sighs.

“I broke up with her  _because_ I love her,” she explains. “Because this is the best way.”

The doors chime open and Shay leads them out, running ahead to hold open the front door for Delphine to walk through. The doctor’s car is parked on the street and she motions towards it with her head. Shay slips her hand into Delphine’s pocket, retrieving her keys and opening the car. She helps lower Cosima into the backseat, closing the door once the clone is safely inside.

“I’ll take care of her,” Delphine promises.

“I know you will,” Shay nods. “And so will I.”

Delphine hesitantly returns her nod, slipping into the driver’s seat. She turns the key in the ignition and is surprised when the passenger door opens, as well. Shay slides in, closing the door and buckling her seatbelt.

“You can’t–”

“Don’t tell me not to come,” Shay interrupts her. “I know there’s nothing I can do… but I can still be there, right?”

Delphine glances from Cosima to Shay, wondering how to proceed. Cosima will be angry. She’ll be furious. She’ll either ream her out or refuse to speak to her again for involving Shay in this… but she’s also fading fast. She doesn’t have time to argue with Cosima’s new lover, so she pulls out and drives straight for DYAD.

Cosima will be furious.

But Cosima will be alive.


End file.
